BIO-FUEL-CONTAMINATED LUBRICANT AND HARDENING EFFECTS ON THE FRICTIONAND WEAR OF AISI-1045 STEEL

A study has been made on the wear and friction of hardened AISI 1045 s teel using a tri-pin-on-disc type of friction and wear apparatus. Duri ng the investigation the linear pin wear, coefficient of friction and rise in pin specimen temperature were monitored and wear and friction curves plotted. Wear surfaces and mechanisms were investigated by mean s of optical microscopy. Analysis of used lubricating oil was performe d wing FTIR spectroscopy. It was shown that the wear rate, type of wea r and friction coefficient were influenced by contaminating the lubric ant with bio-fuel as well as the surface hardening treatment. Corrosiv e wear and Pits on the specimen surface were found when plain bio-fuel was used as lubricating oil. The results also confirmed that better w ear resistance was obtained from the surface-hardened steel specimen w ith 4% bio-fuel-contaminated lubricant. Results from this study will b e useful in material selection for tribological components in diesel e ngines running on vegetable fuel.